A Different Saotome Family
by D the Stampede
Summary: A saner, less traditional Nodoka joins Ranma and Genma on the training trip. Lets see what this changes.


Disclaimer-Still a white American guy, still don't own Ranma One-Half!

"Blah,"-speech

'Blah,'-thoughts

D the Stampede presents

A Different Saotome Family

Chapter One- Here's the Saotomes?

One

We open upon what is a very familiar scene to Ranma One-Half fans by this point. That is a mustached man with shoulder-length hair in a brown gi openly crying while reading a postcard. This was Tendo Soun. "Ranma, coming here? Oh, how I've waited for this day!" he exclaimed before calling out for his daughters, "Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane!"

Kasumi was to be found in the kitchen cutting a watermelon in half when he found her. "Yes, daddy?" she asked.

Nabiki was in her room lounging on her bed and reading while sucking on a Popsicle.

As for Akane, well, she was returning home from a jog and went straight back by the dojo to break bricks. This was where Nabiki found her. "There you go again, Akane. No wonder all the boys think you're so weird."

"So why should I care?" Akane replied, "Not everyone thinks the world revolves around boys, Nabiki."

"No?" Nabiki said, "Then I guess this wouldn't interest you."

"Fiancé?" the girls exclaimed once their father had told them why he had called a family meeting at the dining room table.

"Yes, the son of a very good friend of mine. The son's name is Saotome Ranma. If one of you three girls were to marry him and carry on the Dojo then the Tendo family legacy would be secure." Soun replied.

"Wait a minute!" Akane exclaimed, "Don't we have some say in who we marry?"

"Akane's right," Kasumi agreed, "We've never even met this Ranma."

Nabiki meanwhile just took a sip of her drink while Soun simply chuckled and said, "That's easily fixed."

Two

Meanwhile, in the now rainy street nearby a red-haired girl in an oversized Chinese silk shirt and Kung Fu pants combo did battle with a panda while a growing crowd looked on. Also watching the battle progress was a red-haired woman in a gi who strongly resembled the girl except for the fact that she had cat ears, eyes and a tail. "Cut that out!" the girl demanded of the panda when it attempted to grab her. This was punctuated by her kicking the panda in the face, knocking it down and sending it sliding down the street.

As the panda stood back up, a bystander asked another, "Say, isn't that a panda?"

He replied, "That is a panda, isn't it?"

A third asked the woman with the cat features, "Aren't you a little old for cosplay?"

"Your move," the girl said to the panda. It obliged with a series of punches. "Well, I still say this whole thing sucks!" The girl exclaimed as she caught the panda's forelimb mid-punch and continuing as she threw it to the ground, "Picking my Fiancee for me without even asking!" Then after a moment of standing over the seemingly unconscious panda, she turned away from it and said, "I'm going back to China, father!"

"Now, Ranma," the cat-woman said, "Your father's agreement with Tendo-san goes back before you were born and is a matter of honor between our two families."

The fight went out of the girl with a sigh as she said, "Alright, mom."

"And you can put down that street sign, dear," the cat-woman said to the now armed panda creeping up on the girl.

"What the hell was that all about?" A bystander asked no one in particular as the odd trio went on their way. No one answered.

Three

Back at the Tendo house, Soun continued speaking, "The Saotome family have been on a voyage of training. Recently, it seems, they went to China."

"Wow! China!" Nabiki exclaimed, leaning forward onto the table.

"What's so great about going to China?" Akane asked.

"Is he cute?" Nabiki wanted to know.

"How old is he? Younger men bore me." Kasumi put in, "What kind of guy is this Ranma?"

With a nervous laugh, Soun said, "No idea."

"No idea?" Nabiki demanded with a glare.

"I've never met him," Soun replied.

It was at this moment that there was a knock at the front door. "We have visitors!" Kasumi exclaimed.

Soun and Nabiki rushed towards the front door. "Oh, it must be Ranma!" Nabiki exclaimed.

At the same time, Soun shouted, "Saotome, my old friend! We've been waiting!"

Kasumi and Akane were less enthusiastic, walking instead of running. 'I do hope he's older,' Kasumi thought.

'How depressing! Boys!' was what went through Akane's mind.

As they caught up to the more enthusiastic members of the family, they found Nabiki standing there while Soun made conversation with a cat-woman in a Gi while a younger person and a panda stood behind her. "Nodoka, it's good to see you again," their father was saying, "But when did you take up cosplay? And where's Saotome?"

"That's complicated," the woman replied, turning to glare at the panda.

"And you must be Ranma," Soun said to the younger person, "Oh, how I've waited to meet you!" With that he hugged Ranma. This was when he felt something odd. He promptly held Ranma out to arm's length.

After a moment of silence, Nabiki poked one of Ranma's breasts. "Um, could you stop that?" Ranma asked.

"He is a girl," Nabiki stated with a glare at her father.

Soun fainted.

"Oh, dear, your father is as emotional as ever, isn't he?" Nodoka said, "Now we'll have to wait until he wakes to explain. In the meantime, I don't suppose you could get us some hot water? Dear, could you pick up your friend? He's going to be terribly uncomfortable if we leave him there like that."

Four

"Oh, how to begin?" Nodoka questioned no one in particular after Soun woke up, once again in tears, "Oh, I suppose with a demonstration." She answered herself, "Ranma, come here."

"Um… Do I have to, mom?" Ranma asked, 'They're going to think we're freaks!'

"Yes, dear," Nodoka insisted.

"Alright," Ranma replied as she took the kettle of hot water from her mother and poured some over her head. And promptly grew several inches as her hair turned black and her breasts flattened. In short, she almost instantly became a he. Then, Nodoka took the kettle from her now son and poured some on herself and her cat features disappeared. Finally, the panda changed into a middle-aged Gi-clad man wearing sports glasses and a bandanna over his balding head.

"Saotome!" Soun exclaimed, "How did this happen to you?"

"Well…" the man now identified as Soun's friend began.

"I think I'll tell them, dear." Nodoka said coldly, "It began two weeks ago in China."

Five

"Here, sirs and ma'am. Is legendary training grounds of Jusenkyo," A stocky middle-aged Chinese man in a Communist uniform told the Saotome family in broken Japanese as he showed them to the valley of springs with bamboo stalks sticking out of them.

"Are you prepared, Ranma?" Genma asked.

"This place isn't so impressive," Ranma replied.

"You very strange one, no, sir? This place very dangerous. No one use anymore. Is more than one hundred spring here and every one have own tragic legend!" the guide said.

However, his words fell on deaf ears when it came to the men in the Saotome family. "Ranma, follow me!" Genma exclaimed, jumping onto a nearby bamboo stalk with Ranma just behind him.

"Ah, sirs, what you doing?" the guide shouted.

"Excuse me, Guide-san, what seems to be the problem?" Nodoka asked.

"Springs cursed. Person who fall in become what drown in them," the guide explained in his broken Japanese.

"What? You expect me to believe…" Nodoka started to say only to be interrupted by a splash as Ranma succeeded in kicking his father into one of the springs.

"Oh no!" the guide exclaimed.

"Is that it, father? Are we done already?" Ranma asked his still submerged father. This was when Genma erupted from the spring in the form of a panda to land on one of the bamboo poles in front of Ranma.

"Sir fall in the Spring of Drown Panda. There is tragic legend of panda that drown there two thousand year ago! Now whoever fall in that spring take body of panda!" the guide exclaimed as Genma-panda attacked the surprised Ranma and knocked him into another spring, "Oh, not Spring of Drown Girl! There is tragic legend of girl who drown in spring one thousand five hundred year ago! Now whoever fall in that spring take body of girl."

"Father," the irate, female and red-headed Ranma growled, "Me and mom are having panda steaks for dinner!"

As she prepared to attack her father, her mother stepped in front of her and started to say, "Ranma, before you kill your father…" At which point Ranma threw her aside and she landed in another spring.

"Oh no, sir throw mother into spring of drown cat!" the guide exclaimed.

This snapped Ranma out of her rage, "What?" she said as a red-furred cat emerged from the spring, "Oh no, father is a panda and I turned mom into a cat! Quick, is there a way to change back?"

"Hot water reverse transformation until you hit with cold again," the guide supplied.

"Umm, I was talking something more permanent," Ranma replied.

"Well, Spring of Drown Man should cure you and father, but it location lost. Spring of Drown Girl cure mother, maybe?" the guide said. Ranma immediately dunked the cat that was her mother in the Spring of Drown Girl only for a red-haired cat-woman to emerge. "Oh, another tragedy! Springs mix!" the guide exclaimed.

Six

"And that's the story of our curses," Nodoka concluded, "All because I let my fool of a husband lead us through China when he neither spoke or read the language."

"Well, then your problem isn't so terrible after all," Soun said to Ranma, "These are my daughters, Kasumi, Nineteen, Nabiki, Seventeen, and Akane, Sixteen. Choose the one you want, she'll be your fiancée."

"Oh, he wants Akane," Kasumi said.

"Oh, definitely!" Nabiki agreed.

"You must be joking!" Akane exclaimed.

"I agree," Nodoka stated, "They are all too young to get married, for one thing. For another, they don't even know each other."

"But the engagement must be fulfilled, No-chan," Genma whined.

"Yes, it's a matter of honor," Soun was quick to agree.

"Which I reminded Ranma of when he objected to the agreement on the way here," Nodoka replied, "I'm not saying we don't honor the agreement, just that we give them time to get to know each other and choose for themselves.

A/N

And so, D starts another story. Please read and Review!


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